Kaye rolled her blue eyes and considered putting the eggroll back on Danny’s plate. Honey, I know you well enough, until you prove otherwise. She picked up the eggroll, took a bite, and decided it was way better than whatever this was that Danny had wanted to eat. While she contemplated, she reflected on what she knew about the Lyra.

She didn’t know much, when she thought about it. Danny was part of the big friend group of the school. He was in Lyra. He was a good looking, rich pureblood type, but he had the hots for Marissa. That didn’t make him special, of course. It seemed like most had a thing for the red-head at some point, which Kaye didn’t understand. What, was the girl part veela? It made about as much sense as a Republican male senator at a pro-choice rally. Rose was part of the group, and so was Ruben, sort of. She didn’t have much of an opinion about Rose, but that might change, depending on how close the girl got to Ruben. Kaye couldn’t decide if it’d change in a good or bad way. The only people part of that friend group that Kaye thought of as decent were Holland and Emmett; Ruben was barely part of the group so he didn’t count. Russell hung out with them too, sometimes, but Kaye couldn’t tell if it was voluntary or if it was some kind of hostage situation. Either way, she didn’t care.

Turned out she knew way more about the structure of Danny’s friend group than the guy himself.

While she’d been puzzling over what to do with the food she no longer wanted, Danny decided to show off and somehow made a stool appear out of nowhere. She hadn’t seen the spell, but clearly there was magic involved. This would’ve been something she raised an eyebrow out. Since she was still self-conscious, she didn’t.

There were very few options about what to do with this stool. The first, which she wanted to do the most, was to stand on the stool and tower over the Lyra even more. She’d get excellent height with her boots on, and she knew it would be a really great view. It might even be pretty, with all the different colored fires. The Aquila was almost positive, though, that if she stood on the stool, she’d never be able to get down on her own. She could do a lot in these boots, even dance a little Irish step dance jig when she tried them on for the first time, but even her awesomeness had its limits. And there was no way she’d ask Danny for help when she got stuck.

After a moment, Kaye sat on the stool and watched Danny the whole time. She didn’t know what to do with this very nice gesture. She was used to people being assholes right back. When people were nice, they were usually setting her up for something; it made her guard come right up. Danny didn’t seem to have any trick up his sleeve, though. And, honestly, she wasn’t sure he was smart enough to have some kind of ulterior motive behind creating a place for her to sit.

“Here,” Kaye held out the remainder of the mystery dish to him, “You can have this, if,” she added, because she wasn’t going to make it easy, “You answer my question for real. What’s one thing you’d fix about this school, if you could?”

Did it surprise Danny that Kaye was eating the food he had just missed out on? Of course not. The younger girl didn't seem to be particularly gifted at making friends since her arrival at RMI; even... more

Kaye rolled her eyes and placed the food next to him anyway. She only wanted the eggroll. “Suit yourself,” she shrugged before taking another bite. Her dads had always been impressed by the fact that ... more

After he gave her a proper answer, Danny felt momentarily deflated that she didn't even have the good grace to acknowledge it. He hadn't expected a well rounded critique with helpful feedback, but... more